Content management system for creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user experiences

Abstract

A system for automatically creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user knowledge about sales related subjects. Described is an Internet-based system for assisting/motivating a population of users interested in information about certain categories of sales related subjects to automatically maintain the database content and to improve the usefulness and quality of the database information without any substantial management by the website owner-manager. The user opinions are primarily in the form of both comments and ratings of which sales-related subjects best provide assistance in completing a sale. Also a system for permitting users to access selected functions of the system for creating and viewing subjects from within other software applications.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] The present application is related to and claims priority from prior provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 504,306 filed Sep. 17, 2003, entitled “SALES ADVICE CONTENT GENERATION SYSTEM”; and is related to application Ser. No. 09 / 782,873, filed Feb. 10, 2001, entitled “SYSTEM FOR CREATING AND MAINTAINING A DATABASE OF INFORMATION UTILIZING USER OPINIONS”; and is related to application Ser. No. 10 / 624,345, filed Jul. 22, 2003, entitled “SYSTEM FOR CREATING AND MAINTAINING A DATABASE OF INFORMATION UTILIZING USER OPINIONS”; the contents of all of which are incorporated herein by this reference and are not admitted to be prior art with respect to the present invention by the mention in this cross-reference section.BACKGROUND [0002] This invention relates generally to systems for creating, maintaining and using database information. More particularly, it relates to a system for automatically creating and maintaining a database of information ut...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] Accordingly, it is an object and feature of this invention to provide such a system to develop and maintain content in a database of subjects (e.g., a product, a service, a leisure activity, an experience or a topic), which content can be easily and uniquely searched by users to help them make informed decisions about the database subjects that are particularly relevant to their needs and desires. It is another object and feature of this invention to provide a system for collecting user opinions and / or reviews regarding the database subjects and for utilizing the user opinions and / or reviews to support database searches and more informed decision-making about the subjects.

Problems solved by technology

These prior systems present a number of limitations and drawbacks for the internal user of the system.

Specifically, a user cannot search for a subject based on opinions or ratings of the users of the system.

Therefore a user is often unable to search for a subject based entirely or partially on the users' opinions or ratings.

Although corporate on-line information services allow users to personalize or customize the information displayed to them on initial entry to the site, such personalization is limited because it does not allow for consideration of the user's interests and related opinions and ratings of the other users.

First, highly structured hierarchical search rules force users to search in predetermined ways, and text-based searches rely on ambiguous words or phrases and focus on names or subjects, not concise descriptions and user's evaluations, making identification and selection of the most relevant content (to a particular searcher) difficult.

Second, because searches are either very rigid or very loosely structured, it is difficult for users to compare similar subjects across the spectrum of their needs.

Finally, the quality, freshness and completeness of the database of information are often questionable due to a lack of effective methods for soliciting updates and new subject matter.

The costs of maintaining the quality and currency of the information through centralized administration can be quite high.

Corporate on-line shared information services also present difficulties for the system operators and managers.

However, the current methods lack precision because of the ambiguous nature of the ratings and comments.

Often, these communities require significant effort and human intervention to manage.

Currently, substantial effort is required to manage reviews done by humans and are usually completed by a limited group who are subject matter experts or geographically close to the submitter.

Moreover, prior on-line information systems include incentive systems that have drawbacks.

Users' behavior is little influenced by the incentives except when attempting to “game” the system and gain unfair or improper rewards.

This type of knowledge is very much word-of-mouth based and often very valuable, but not well dispersed through particular groups within the workplace.

These challenges exist particularly within sales organizations, which are often large and geographically dispersed.

Unfortunately, much of this informal knowledge is not available in an organized and usable form to all the sales, sales support and product support people.

This knowledge is created as people go about their daily routines, but generally they do not have the tools for easily capturing and classifying it.

Similarly, those sales people who need this knowledge do not always know the best sources for it.

As a result, once a person is no longer associated with the organization, that person's knowledge is also no longer available.

As a result, sales persons lacking this knowledge may be hampered in their performance.

Additionally, the informality of the sharing also tends to reduce the accuracy of the knowledge as it is shared among co-workers.

Many of the automated sales management systems available today capture the data and information about sales activities such as units sold, total sales value, etc., but do not provide a mechanism for capturing, organizing and sharing “intellectual capital”.

Additionally, initial capture of this “intellectual capital” is sometimes difficult to guide and direct even with training.

General incentives and awards programs are helpful in generating overall enthusiasm and participation but cannot influence very precisely the nature and types of information captured.

Additionally, corporate users often perceive switching from one computer application to another as a barrier and an inconvenience, particularly if the user must wait while an application “starts up”.

This issue often makes it difficult for the user to “capture the moment of inspiration or recollection” while they are working on other tasks.

Methods which avoid this barrier and encourage and simplify how users “capture the moment of inspiration or recollection” are limited.

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